SC expresses concern over rising pollution in Yamuna

The Supreme Court on Thursday expressed serious concern over the rising level of pollution in the Yamuna in the capital and asked the authorities to take appropriate steps on a priority basis to check it.

During hearing of a PIL on the issue, a three-Judge Bench headed by Chief Justice YK Sabharwal said measure should be taken to check untreated sewage water from flowing into the river.

The apex court had taken suo motu cognizance of a Hindustan Times report in 1994 on the dirt flowing into the Yamuna and since then it is hearing the matter as a PIL.

Meanwhile, the Delhi government informed the Supreme Court that it planned to augment the capacity of three existing sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the capital to further check untreated sewage water from flowing into the river.

In its latest status report filed in the court, the Delhi government said that the capacity of Kondli, Okhla and Yamuna Vihar STPs would be increased by 45, 30 and 25 MGD respectively.

This would take the total sewage treatment capacity of the Delhi Jal Board's STPs to 612.40 MGD by 2009, it said. The Bench fixed November 21 to consider the report.

According to the report, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi has recovered an amount of over 5.84 crore by imposing fines on litterbugs and those violating municipal laws on sanitation and public health.

The amount was recovered through over 1.91 lakh challans issued between July 2003 and September 2006 by 16 Municipal Magistrates working in all the 12 zones, it said.

As many as 5,507 unauthorised jhuggis have been demolished by the land owning agencies (MCD, DDA etc) on the directions of the Yamuna-Removal, Encroachment Monitoring Committee headed by Justice Usha Mehra, the report said.